CALIFORNIA DRUG PROGRAM BEGINS, DESPITE LOS ANGELES'S SKEPTICISM

SACRAMENTO, July 2 — The nation's biggest experiment in drug rehabilitation
has begun in California, despite warnings from Los Angeles County that it
lacked money for the program.

Proposition 36, passed last fall by voters, requires treatment instead of
prison or jail for the estimated 36,000 nonviolent drug users convicted
each year of use or possession for the first or second time. Treatment will
range from counseling to a stint at a rehabilitation center.

The law became effective on Sunday. California led the way in jailing drug
users two decades ago and now locks up more drug offenders per capita than
any other state, at 115 people per 100,000 population.

Proponents of Proposition 36 said treatment addressed the root of the
problem and saved money in the long run by reducing the need for prisons.

Each of California's 58 counties has its own plan to carry out Proposition
36, which allocates $120 million a year for the program statewide.

In Los Angeles County, the state's largest, with 9.5 million people,
officials say their program could be overwhelmed and underfinanced when it
tries to handle a projected 17,000 cases, about one-third of the state's
expected eligible offenders, with $30 million in state money.

"The county's going to go into debt. We just don't know how much," said
Judge Michael Tynan of Superior Court, who supervises the county's drug courts.

Supporters of the initiative say officials are being alarmist.

"There's a lot of Chicken Little going on in L.A.," said Whitney Taylor of
the Lindesmith Center, a policy research institute.

Drug offenders who want to stay out of jail and get help from one of the
300 or so private treatment services in Los Angeles County will have to
enter a conditional guilty plea. They will then be supervised during
treatment by one of 26 special judges. Offenders' records are cleared if
they complete treatment.

Under the county's current drug treatment program, offenders are tested up
to six times a week during the early stages of treatment.

But no money has been set aside for testing under Proposition 36, which has
led to one of the most serious debates about the measure.